Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the ... Wait, who the hell are you?!

The Mirror of Her Dreams is the first installment in Stephen R. Donaldson's series, Mordant's Need. Terisa Morgan is a Shrinking Violet living in a mirror-covered condominium. Obsessed with the idea that she is vanishing and that she exists to no one, she works the toneless days away until the night she meets Geraden. He comes through one of the mirrors in her room and persuades her to accompany him back through the mirror to his world, Mordant.

Once in Mordant, Terisa realizes that she is there for a reason ó the mirror-wielding magicians, called Imagers, believe she is The Chosen One to bring peace to Mordant, which is about to be attacked and is slowly deteriorating under the control of a mad king. Terisa thinks they are mistaken, but she cannot go back, especially after one of the most powerful Imagers, MasterEremis, begins to notice her.This novel provides examples of:

Abusive Parents: Both of Terisa's parents, but especially her father, who is described as a cold, sarcastic man.

Anachronism Stew: Due to the Imagers' ability to access many worlds, at many different stages of development, a lot of anachronistic technology gets pulled into Mordant, but only in isolated examples which cannot be replicated (and advanced technologies have no way to maintain their power, so eventually run down and become useless).

Apologises a Lot: Geraden. Almost anything he says in the first half of the book is followed by "sorry." Terisa puts her foot down.

Terisa: If you apologise more than three times a day, I'm going to kick you.

Arranged Marriage: Almost, between Elega and Geraden, before the events of the book. Elega put her foot down, because of Geraden's lack of drive and talent.

Bash Brothers: Argus and Ribuld. They are introduced at the beginning of the story and then treated almost as the same character. They are reasonably good at fighting, at least able to hold off Gart for some time. And the moment they're separated Argus dies.

Black Sheep: Nyle. Instead of being loyal to the King like the rest of the Domne's sons, he chooses to plot insurrection. Both Artagel and Geraden are furious when they find out. Geraden eventually stops his brother, but before Nyle can divulge any more information, he's killed for his trouble.

Bookcase Passage: In a non-bookcase example, the secret passage in the Peacock Room. It's used at different times by Terisa, Master Quillon, Gart, and Adept Havelock.

Castellan Lebbick knows about it and attempts to use it to prove Terisa is conspiring against the king.

Saddith knows about it as well, and tells Master Eremis, who then tells Gart.

Break the Cutie: Geraden. He starts deteriorating with Artagel's near-death experience and keeps sliding ... and sliding ... and sliding ... until you think he has nothing left to lose. Then Nyle dies and the shit hits the fan.

Brilliant but Lazy: Artagel. He is the best swordsman in all of Mordant, among other things, but he never rises in the ranks of the army.

Chekhov's Hobby: For both Myste and Elega, it is exploring the secret passages throughout Orison. Elega uses this to hide from the Tor's men and the Castellan and also poison the water supply; Myste uses it to escape Orison and chase after the "Champion."

Chekhov's Skill: Geraden's constant clumsiness. It may inconvenience him throughout the book, but it has also taught him how to recover quickly, and that makes all the difference when he attacks Nyle.

For Terisa, knowing how to play checkershop-board. It aids her in playing Prince Kragen to a stalemate and therefore saving him face.

They are both suspected of harboring hitherto unknown powers of Imagery, and it's said outright that Terisa can sense where mirrors are focused and that Geraden features prominantly in the augury.

The disbelief in Terisa and Geraden's powers causes the Congery to pick who they think is The Chosen One. This causes a wall to be blown out of Orison by the half-crazed futuristic warrior and for Geraden and Terisa to almost be killed by the subsequent rock fall.

Downer Ending: With Terisa in the hands of Castellan Lebbick, Geraden in a strange land, possibly out of reach of everyone, Nyle dead by someone's hand, Alend on the verge of laying siege to Orison, and Master Eremis getting away with his evil scheme.

Fantasy World Map: Subverted. A distinct lack of one, actually. Justified in that the story is told through the eyes of Terisa, and when names of places are thrown at her, the reader is as confused as she is.

Gambit Pileup: At first the book looks like this, both to Terisa and the reader. However by the end it's pretty clear there's only three factions.

Neatly pointed out by Terisa to Master Quillion in quite a touching moment. When Quillion asks Terisa why she didn't tell anyone about Gart trying to kill her again Terisa asks, quite fairly, who Quillion expects her to trust.

Ho Yay: The scene where Geraden and Terisa are rescued from the rock fall, and Artagel gets a little too caring over his brother's possible death. And then a little too cuddly afterward when it's revealed Geraden is still alive. Also, with Geraden "fainting away in Artagel's arms? Yeah.

The Mad Hatter: Adept Havelock. He went insane after following Arch-Imager Vagel through a flat glass, and now spends his days playing checkers hop-board and talking about sex.

Magic A Is Magic A: A strong point of the series, the rules of 'imagery' are well defined, interesting and major elements of the plot. Essentially mirrors in Mordant's world don't show whats in front of them but rather show what's happening at a specific point in the same world (if they're flat) or another world (if they're curved). Those with the talent can step into the mirrors themselves, teleporting themselves to the location shown, and potentially pass back through the mirror if they didn't step through completely (which is how Geraden enters our world and brings back Terisa. They can also do the reverse, teleport a creature or object visible in the mirror to where they are. Working with flat glass carries two dangers: stepping through a flat glass sends you mad unless you are an arch-imager, and should you happen to look in a flat mirror focused on where you're standing and thereby see yourself in the mirror your mind is permanently erased of everything, meaning you are for all intents and purposes dead. Most imagers focus on working with curved glass. This is both to avoid these dangers and because the number of weird and dangerous stuff that can be potentially found and summoned from curved mirrors makes an imager one of the most powerful people found in fiction - if they have the right glass.

It's also worth mentioning however that what makes Geraden and Terisa so important is that they can break just about every rule of imagery there is

Itís also worth mentioning that up til recently Imagers were feared distrusted and hunted down by mobs with pitchforks and thus forced to live in hiding conducting solitary research or be forced into service by whatever army happened to occupy that part of Mordant. It wasnít until King Joyse formed the Congery (within the last 60 years or so) that Imagers were given a place of safety in which to conduct research and share knowledge and even then they still keep secrets from one another as old habits die hard so imho its not that much of a stretch to find that what everyone believes to be the major unbreakable rules of imagery are not as set in stone as previously believed.

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Given by both Eremis and Nyle. Eremis' speech has to do with convincing Terisa that Geraden and Gilbur have been plotting together all along and is effectively an attempt to get her on his side. Nyle's speech is given to Geraden as to why he is betraying the king instead of aiding him like all his other brothers. Both times, the recipients of such speeches are unmoved.

Rebellious Princess: Elega. Especially since it turns out she's been plotting against King Joyse the entire time with Prince Kragen and Nyle.

But also Myste, when she goes after the Champion and attempts to reason with him.

Royal Blood: Played straight with Elega, Torrent, and Myste. Subverted in Alend, where heirs - and not necessarily the king's sons - have to fight over who gains the throne. This provides the (innocent) reason why Prince Kragen arrives in Orison.

Safety In Indifference: Terisa developed her 'fading' as protection from her emotionally abusive parents, and is now sometimes able to invoke it at will, however other times it occurs spontaneously (hence why her apartment is full of mirrors - to prove she still exists when it comes over her).

Sleeps with Everyone but You: In a rare male example, Eremis is this to Terisa. She dreams about him and even dresses up in her sexiest gown and goes to his room, but finds him having sex with Saddith.

Snow Means Death: An interesting inversion on this trope. When Terisa arrives in Mordant, it's near the end of winter. All of its inhabitants are hoping for a late snowmelt, because the longer that the snow is on the ground, the harder it is for Alend and Cadwal to use the roads to attack Mordant.

Super Soldier: The High King's Monomach, Gart. He is the most skilled swordsman there is out there, and his Apts are no less deadly. For Mordant, this exists in the form of Artagel, Geraden's eldest brother, although he's not as good as Gart, as revealed when they meet twice and both times Artagel is defeated.

Thicker Than Water: played straight with Artagel guarding Terisa for Geraden's sake and almost dying for it. Also with Nyle, when he comes back to save Geraden and Terisa from the strange monsters. Inverted with Terisa's parents being completely loveless and Elega betraying her father for Prince Kragen.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy